How Erica Gadsby is holistically transforming lives with ReCreate Clothing
Erica and her manager, Srey Leak in their workshop in Cambodia. Image credits: ReCreate
When she first set foot in Cambodia, Erica Gadsby felt an immediate connection with the country and its people. A social entrepreneur who had been working with non-profit organisations her whole adult life, Erica knew she wanted to use her business expertise for social good.
In 2013, she founded ReCreate Clothing, an ethical fashion brand that produces sustainably-crafted clothing made in Cambodia. ReCreate’s women's clothing range is beautifully designed in New Zealand with a focus on versatility and timelessness. Every garment is ethically and sustainably produced - from the farmers growing their cotton all the way to your doorstep.
To celebrate Fashion Revolution Week 2021, we sat down with Erica to talk about how ReCreate is growing their impact on marginalised communities in Cambodia and how running a social enterprise has shaped who she is today.
ReCreate was started to provide women of the Dey Tmey community skills and employment opportunities. Image credits: ReCreate
What made you start ReCreate and use fashion as a force for good?
Starting ReCreate came from my personal connection with the community in Cambodia. Throughout my 20s, I had done a lot of volunteer work over there with a number of NGOs and communities but there was one in particular that I felt a strong attachment to. It was a community of people who were originally slum dwellers that were displaced from the capital city of Phnom Penh and moved to rural sites in an effort to make the city more attractive to toursits. One of these rural sites was called Dey Tmey, meaning “New Land”. Just seeing those people on a journey of having to start their lives again from the ground up really connected with me.
Every year my husband and I would return and see slight developments but they still lacked employment opportunities for women. Income was generally found through prostitution or menial labour like doing laundry or selling food. That’s why I decided to start something that could provide training and employment for women in that community. I don’t have a background in fashion design, but since garment production is a massive industry in Cambodia, I thought it would be a useful skill for women to have. Applying my degree in business and experience with non-profit management, I partnered with a friend of mine who is a fashion designer and together we started the ReCreate workshop. So the fashion aspect of ReCreate was really more of a tool to help women learn a skill and grow so they could provide for their families.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about starting an ethical business?
Great question! For me it was having a clear vision from the beginning about who we were, what we wanted to accomplish with ReCreate and how we were going to do it. It’s important to have our values straight because for every decision that needs to be made, there will always be a cheaper or faster alternative. The fashion industry is renowned for being unethical and unsustainable because despite having a lot of financial power, most large brands do not choose to search for ethical alternatives to their business practices. To this very day, that mindset still confounds me especially because smaller brands like ReCreate are proving that it’s possible.
Not just a business, but a holistic centre to help people transform their lives. Image credits: ReCreate
At fair&good, we love connecting our community to the people who make their products. Could you tell us about your team of artisans?
Absolutely! We’ve chosen to keep our team really small because we want it to be personal and feel like a family. We’ve got an amazing manager, Srey Leak, who has been with us since day one and has the best heart. Most of our artisans come from challenging backgrounds but she’s great at understanding them and helping them get settled in. We also have our sewing team leader, Sompoa, who has also been incredible and come a long way since she first started with us. The rest of the team is mostly made up of women but we’ve also got 2 guys with us.
We don’t just want to be a sewing workshop, but rather a holistic centre that helps people move forward in their lives. So apart from sewing training, we also offer literacy training, financial management and any other service that help our artisans get back on their feet.
In the last year, we’ve seen lots of growth with ReCreate so we’ve started to outsource our work to five other workshops that are quite similar to ours. These workshops aren’t just ethical in their employment approach, but transformational in the way that they work with people. Two of them work specifically with survivors of sex trafficking to provide them with vocational training and counselling services. That’s the whole purpose of ReCreate’s existence - to see people’s lives change. We’re not just about making products ethically, because everyone should be doing that, but we want to take it a step further and help them gain better lives.
“We don’t just want to be a sewing workshop, but rather a holistic centre that helps people move forward in their lives. So apart from sewing training, we also offer literacy training, financial management and any other service that help our artisans get back on their feet.”
ReCreate creates versatile and inclusive pieces that stand the test of time. Image credits: ReCreate
When did you realise that ReCreate could make an impact on the lives of these women?
The one story I always think of is about our team leader and first sewing student, Sompoa, just because there was such a profound change in her. When she first came to work with us, she had only done four years of primary school and she had really low confidence in herself. There were a number of times when she almost left us in the beginning because she was really fearful of her ability to learn and kept thinking that she wasn’t good enough. But we had an amazing sewing trainer who was patient and loving when working with her.
Six months later, when I came back to visit, she was a completely different person! She always says she loves ReCreate because she has gained a skill that no one can take away from her. Coming from a place where she was robbed of her land and home, having this skills means the world to her. Her skills are part of her and it’s something she wants to pass on to her children so they know that they can have a better future too. All our artisans have got such amazing stories. Nearly all of them came from a background of poverty when they first started with us but now they all have a middle-class life. They can afford to buy a home and send their children to school - and that’s beautiful to watch.
In the beginning, there was a slight temptation for me to turn ReCreate into a charity, do fundraising and get donations. But it’s so much better as a business because the people working for us know the difference between being a charity case and being a valuable, contributing member of a team.
Sompoa, ReCreate’s sewing team leader has grown in confidence from when she first started. Image credits: ReCreate
What does the Fashion Revolution movement mean to you as an ethical business owner?
Fashion Revolution is such a good guiding force to show us that the industry must improve and must be better. There are heaps of big brands out there that need to change their ways so it’s great that the public are gaining awareness and demanding better from businesses. I think the movement is an amazing force for the change that we want to see.
How do you think the New Zealand fashion industry has evolved since Fashion Revolution?
I feel really optimistic about the fashion industry in New Zealand. It’s encouraging to see brands that have been around for a long time and never talked about the need for change are now making significant improvements to their business practices and are at the forefront of this movement. I think it also helps to have a public platform like Fashion Revolution so brands are held accountable and pressured to do better.
Even if brands are making small changes to begin with or jumping on the bandwagon, I believe that’s a great start and it will only get better from there. I truly love our ethical industry and community of brands. We’ve even collaborated with a number of local brands on fair&good! I don’t see us as competitors in the slightest; it’s more like us against other unethical companies. Even if we make similar products as ethical fashion brands, as long as we’re taking business away from fast fashion, their progress is our success.
There will always be cheaper and faster alternatives, but Erica chooses to stick by her ethos. Image credits: ReCreate
Apart from shopping ethical fashion, how can consumers be part of the Fashion Revolution movement?
A lot of it comes down to the online voice and how consumers are using that to take action. It’s great that more people are gaining awareness of the Fashion Revolution movement and asking brands the right questions. Change often starts with a little shift in your mindset so the fact that people are even thinking about things like who made their clothes, in what conditions, what fabrics are used is a big improvement.
How has running an ethical business shaped who you are today?
Great question, I've never actually been asked that before! I was always fairly mindful about the way that I lived and the things that I bought. But running an ethical business has really emphasised the importance of that lifestyle to me. By having a greater understanding of how things are made, where they are sourced from and the true impact it has on the people that are making them - it's definitely made me more of a conscious consumer myself.
“We’re all about making clothes that people can feel good about wearing and feel better knowing where it came from” - Erica. Image credits: ReCreate
What’s next for ReCreate?
Our goals have shifted a little due to Covid-19. We were meant to establish a second workshop in another part of Cambodia and we also had plans to expand our business to Australia. But right now, we’re just focused on doing what we do best in New Zealand and growing our business here. We’re working on strengthening the relationships between our new production partners. We want to become consistent in our partnership with them so they can depend on us as an ongoing source of work. Many of them really struggled with Covid-19 because they were making products for tourists but that industry has gone completely downhill. So being able to offer more opportunities for them through making our clothing is something we’re concentrating our efforts on.
We want everyone who makes our clothing to not just be gaining fair employment but also have access to rehabilitation and other personal development services. Our main focus isn’t to become the coolest fashion brand out there but to offer good quality, wearable clothing. We do have new pieces every now and again with fabrics that have been revisited but we also want to show different ways that our products can be worn and styled. We’re all about making clothes that people can feel good about wearing and feel better knowing where it came from.
What is your favourite thing to do when you’re not busy working?
For now it’s hanging out with my family and seeing my boys grow. I have two boys who are one and three years old, so we have fun going on little adventures together.
